Project: Digital Participatory Planning

A finalist of the RTPI Sir Peter Hall Award for Excellence in Research and Engagement in 2022

 

Research published 2022

Lead researchers and institutions:

Dr Alexander Wilson, Newcastle University* and Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones, UCL*

* RTPI-accredited planning school

 

Note: Findings and recommendations reflect the views of the researchers at the time of writing and are not necessarily the views of the RTPI

 

Key takeaways

• There have been sustained efforts to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies by local planning authorities, alongside significant pressure for planners to deliver developments more quickly, efficiently and in greater numbers.
• Digital technologies present novel and meaningful opportunities for engagement, but careful consideration needs to be given to these during their adoption and rollout.
• A human-based approach to engagement – centring experiences, feelings, and aspirations rather than specific technologies – is key.
• Using technology to slow down discussion, encourage creativity, and foster dialogue opens new opportunities to design systems that lead to more meaningful engagement.

Summary

Planners are under pressure – facing demands for faster and increasingly politicised decisions alongside a vocal and disenfranchised public and the rise of misinformation. Amidst this, planners are also being urged to engage with opportunities presented by contemporary digital technologies.

In recent years, efforts to digitalise the planning system have intensified. The authors pioneered research on and trials of digital planning back in 2013-14, including building digital public participation platforms. More recently, the impact of COVID-19 and legislation such as the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (2023) have intensified digital planning opportunities. The Act outlines expectations for how planning data is standardised, shared, and used (the stick), while work by MHCLG’s PropTech Innovation Fund has, since 2021, sought to accelerate the adoption of digital tools (the carrot).

However, the authors observe that digital technologies have been, and to a certain extent, still are, designed to make engagement faster (focusing on engaging as many people as possible) rather than better quality. These approaches tend to focus on lightweight methods, such as tick boxes, pins on maps, and short questionnaires, over more deliberative processes.

Having previously warned of the growing threat to planners presented by social media and misinformation, the authors note that those fears have now been realised: recent research conducted by the RTPI shows that “96 per cent of planners believe that social and online media contribute to the misinformation about planning issues in their area.” (RTPI, 2025).

Their 2022 book 'Digital Participatory Planning' is the culmination of over eight years’ work exploring digital engagement. In it they explore what a more productive, technology-mediated discussion could look like. Through this work they designed, deployed, and evaluated different types of engagement technology to understand how they might encourage deeper engagement.

They found that technologies can encourage dialogue, immersion, and creative thinking that can empower people to better communicate what is important to them about where they live. This results in fewer knee-jerk reactions on social media, and places people’s lived experiences at the centre.

Key is taking a fundamentally human-centred approach: thinking through what is important to communities first (rather than focusing on the technology to be used), giving communities time to reflect, and allowing them to communicate in ways that do not require prior understanding of the planning system. This creates a more open and more accessible form of planning that, in turn, takes some of the angst out of planning debate.

Ultimately, the authors emphasises that while digital technologies present novel and meaningful opportunities for engagement, careful consideration must be given to how they are adopted and rolled out. By using technology to deliberately slow down discussion, encourage creativity, and foster deep dialogue, we can open up new opportunities to design systems that move beyond mere expedient engagement.

With the introduction of AI and automation to the planning process, the questions raised by the book have become even more pertinent. AI promises, if current hype is to be believed, to revolutionise our approach to urban planning, yet critical questions arise:

• Can AI systems be designed in a way that can be easily understood and trusted?
• How do large language models gain legitimacy in a democratic setting?
• Do participants feel their voices will truly be heard during AI-mediated engagement exercises?
• What is a planner’s role when key tasks are automated?
• What is the value of AI-written representations and responses?
• And who is held responsible when mistakes are made?

While the use of technologies in some local authorities has moved on significantly since 2022, crucial questions remain over the use of digital technology in urban planning. The book ponders these dilemmas and calls for a human-centred approach to engagement regardless of the promise of the latest technological advancements.

Recommendations

The key is taking a fundamentally human-centred approach by:

• thinking through what is important to communities first (rather than focusing on the technology to be used),
• giving them time to reflect, and
• allowing them to communicate in ways that do not require prior understanding of the planning system.

This creates a more open and more accessible form of planning that, in turn, takes some of the angst out of planning debate. 

Full reference

Wilson, A., & Tewdwr-Jones, M. (2022). Digital Participatory Planning: Citizen Engagement, Democracy, and Design. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Participatory-Planning-Citizen-Engagement-Democracy-and-Design/Wilson-Tewdwr-Jones/p/book/9781032041179

Related outputs

Wilson, A., Rodger, S., Bowen, S., & Tewdwr-Jones, M. (2025). Public engagement, digital technology and transport: Engaging through open, early and experience-centred perspectives at scale. Contemporary Social Science, 20(1), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2024.2343880

Wilson, A., Tewdwr-Jones, M., & Comber, R. (2019). Urban planning, public participation and digital technology: App development as a method of generating citizen involvement in local planning processes. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 46(2), 286–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808317712515

 

Header image: Co-researchers at the launch of the new Metro with Metro Futures 2016 - many of the approaches explored in the research were applied to engagement around the design of new Metro trains (Alexander Wilson, 2023).